Church cancels anti-divorce TV ad in Chile

The Catholic Church in Chile has bowed to pressure and scrapped the most controversial of its anti-divorce television advertisements.

The ad relied on seven-year-old statistics to claim children of divorced parents were more likely to be drug and alcohol abusers.

After two weeks of outrage the Catholic Church has apologised, admitted it was wrong, and overhauled its anti-divorce television campaign.

The Archbishop of Santiago said he had stopped an ad that claimed children of divorced parents were more likely to lie, skip school, and abuse drugs and alcohol.

He admitted it might harm children with separated parents.

Critics have called it a campaign of terror.

Chile is one of the few democracies in the world that has no divorce law and the Church is fighting to keep it that way.